


Luncar Eclipse

by BlackBirdAolen



Category: Final Fantasy IV
Genre: Afteryears, Intertwined Fates, M/M, Moon, alternative storyline
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-03-10
Updated: 2014-03-10
Packaged: 2018-01-15 06:27:19
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 14
Words: 17,954
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1294822
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BlackBirdAolen/pseuds/BlackBirdAolen
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A strange darkness has embraced the world. The vile has poisoned the souls of thousands. Frozen in time, the earth and the moons wait for their savior... Will there be hope?</p><p> </p><p>  <a href="http://ask.fm/BlackBirdAolen">Got a fanfic idea for me?</a><br/><a href="http://cheroshseiphar.deviantart.com/">My deviantART - full of original fiction.</a><br/><a href="http://blackbirdaolen.tumblr.com/">Snippets and ramblings on my tumblr.</a></p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Blood Night

The rustling of the sheets was the only thing Kain heard in the night having fallen over Baron. The dragoon tried hard to calm himself down, to fall asleep. But however long he laid there, he couldn't calm his swirling mind down. Something was tugging on his conscience, of that he was sure.

_'Something is lurking out there. And I'm afraid it is waiting for Cecil.'_

Pushing himself up into a sitting position, Kain listened to the night's few noises. Baron was a surprisingly quiet town, almost unsettling in a way. Who could have thought that the world's biggest military force was slumbering here? The Red Wings were famous, or rather infamous, for being the best soldiers.

Only clad in short leather pants, Kain lifted from the bed, stepping close to one of the few windows. Cool air was flushing into the room and over his body, making him aware of how heated up he was after his horribly restless 'sleep'.

The day before, Cecil and him had trained for hours, without bothering about anything else than each other. They wanted to become the best, better than the Red Wings, better than any other force in this world. But Kain was worried about what he believed to have seen in Cecil's eyes when they had been training. There had been... a strange shimmer. A glinting, malicious and otherworldly.

_'That wasn't Cecil there. That was...'_

His thoughts were interrupted by his door opening slowly. He looked up, surprised, only to find Cecil standing there. His friend looked strangely absent, as if he was walking in his sleep. Cecil wore his armor, but it looked strangely disheveled. Blinking, Kain stepped closer, hesitating again.

He had seen this expression before. Shortly after the strange malicious shimmer had glinted in Cecil's eyes, the other had stopped moving, even dropped his sword, and just stared at something not even existing. Kain swallowed thickly, reaching out – just to be stopped by a suddenly lifted blade.

“C-Cecil?!”

“Stop right there. You are trying to take Rosa away from me, right?”

Kain's eyes widened at how empty and monotone Cecil's voice had become. In the faint light of the moon, Cecil looked absolutely otherworldly. The white hair spilling over the black plates of his dark knight's armor had a strange purple hue to them, and his usually clear eyes looked clouded and empty.

“What are you talking about? I... Cecil, I _never_ would try that.”

“Liar. You wanted to take her away.”

“Cecil, listen, I wouldn't do that to you, I swear!”

“Liar. Liar. Liar.”

And suddenly, Cecil's arm dropped. The sword hit the ground with a loud clattering, and Cecil's head sank forward. Only Kain's quick reaction prevented the dark knight from collapsing. He felt unusually light, which made Kain shudder in terror. What was going on here...?!

“Kain?!”

Rosa had stepped into the room, staring at him and Cecil with a strangely pale face. Kain laid Cecil down on his bed, looking utterly helpless. He didn't understand what was going on, and by the looks of it, neither did Rosa.

“Kain, what happened?”

“I don't know either. Cecil suddenly was standing in my room... accused me of wanting to take you away from him. And then, he...”

Kain stopped in mid-sentence. There it was again. The feeling that something utterly _corrupted_ was close. And it had grasped Rosa, too. The malicious shimmer, remembering of a fire raging in a wood, filled Rosa's eyes, and she became limp for a moment, too.

_'Gods, no... NO! Not Rosa, too!'_

“Liar. You wanted to kill him. You wanted to take Cecil away from me.”

Rosa had picked up Cecil's sword, having grasped it like it was the most natural thing for her to draw a sword. Kain fought the impulse of grasping his lance and defending himself. He couldn't hurt his best friends, even if his own life was in danger. And now, Cecil had risen to his feet again.

“You wanted to tear us apart. Liar. Traitor.”

“You should die, Kain. You are a liar.”

They approached him, with strangely mechanic movements. Kain felt the strange energy pulsing from them, even approaching him and circling around him. There was this faint voice in his head, a multitude of tones and hissing noises...

_'Become one with us. Let the vile control you. Be stronger than ever before.'_

“No... no, I won't...!”

_'But you have no other choice, right? Your friends, your precious dear friends, are under our control. Submit, Kain, and become one with us. Let the vile taint you.'_

“NO!”

A sharp, horrible pain stabbed into Kain's body, and he needed some time to understand Rosa had pierced him with the sword. The voice cackled with a horrible shrieking sound, darkness grasping him.

_'Then you are useless. But we won't let you go without our little seed of darkness. It will be there, if you want it or not. One day, you will join us. You will be tainted, little dragon.'_

Kain gasped as Rosa grasped the sword again, pulling it out with a single movement. Blood splattered to the ground, looking strangely unreal in the dim light of the moon. Kain shuddered, finally falling down on his knees and pressing his hands to his stomach. He would die. He knew he would die, this night, by the hands of his friends.

“R-Rosa... Cecil, please...!”

_'It's useless, Kain. They are with us. They no longer belong to you. Liar. Traitor.'_

The dragoon curled up, panting against the ground. He already felt how his conscience began to slip, how it slowly, but surely, was fading. This couldn't be happening... He couldn't die, not like this, not tonight.

Soothing darkness stretched out its arms for him, but it wasn't the one filled with vile and shrieking voices. It was the gentle darkness unconscience and sleep shared...

_Above Baron, the moons darkened, gleaming in deep orange. As they both appeared to burn, they embraced the world with a fiery glow, and darkness fell everywhere. An airship left Baron, and the part of the world having fallen silent and lifeless._

 


	2. The Two Dragons

Kain felt like he was floating. Floating in a place without time and space. Through half-lidded eyes, he saw different shades of gray, broken by purest white and deep darkness. His body hurt, like someone had abused it as punching bag. The pain flared momentarily, making him gasp and writhe. Where did the pain come from? Was it really the dark seed the voice had been talking about?

Gentle hands grasped him, pulling him with them. He would have pleaded them to just leave him here, but his mouth felt too dry. He would have responded to the touch, but his arms felt like filled with lead. He felt utterly helpless, even more than in the very moment the sword had stabbed him.

What had even led to this situation? He couldn't understand what had possessed his closest friends, what had made them do this to him. Fear, anger and sadness were mixing, creating a horribly uncomfortable feeling in his chest.

Something brushed against him, and Kain could see something black close to him. It was shimmering lightly, and he felt tempted to touch it. But at the same time, he didn't want it enough to do it. If he couldn't trust his friends any longer, what should he think about someone, or rather _something_ foreign?

“Now you are insulting me, Kain. I'm not a stranger.”

A deep, pleasant voice, resonating in his body. Kain had never heard it before, of that he was sure. Something different from the many hands touched him; something feeling like smooth hide.

“Let him rest some more, brother. He must be completely drained.”

“In a quite literal sense, too.”

“Oh, stop the horrible jokes.”

The pain began to subside bit by bit, and Kain's vision cleared. Two dragons, curled up like snakes, watched him with intent and what appeared like light anxiety. The black one puffed warm air over his body, while the white seemed to use healing magic on him.

“Finally, you're waking up. King Leviathan was worrying he might not have been there in time.”

“I have to say that Queen Asura was quite worried about him, too. Don't forget that, dear brother.”

“Never would, brother, of that you can be sure.”

Kain didn't understand what they were talking about, but before he could ask, an elderly looking man appeared. The dragons bowed their heads to him as he approached Kain, brushing one hand against the weakened man's cheek. He felt refreshed, as if he just had drunk water.

“I wasn't too late, it appears. Good, then I don't have to worry any longer. My name is Leviathan, as you already heard. We brought you to the Fay March, after you were thrown overboard.”

Thrown overboard? Kain tried to grasp the meaning of those words, but they just slipped his mind. His head was swimming, and throbbing with a most painful headache. The strangely bony hand rested against his forehead, and a quiet murmur filled the air. It almost sounded like a prayer, albeit in a language Kain never had heard before.

“The Red Wings brought you away from Baron. One after the other was tainted by the vile, and the last, the one having fought the longest against the vile, finally saw the only way in saving you by throwing you into the deep ocean. A wise decision, if I may say so.”

Low stepping sounds were heard as another person approached Kain, this time a woman with a most gentle face.

“Our guest opened his eyes finally, I see. I'm glad that you are alright, Kain.”

“We will need some more of your healing powers. We might were able to remove the vile having started to infect him, but the seed...”

“Yes, I know.”

She sighed softly as she brushed her hand over Kain's stomach, warmth and an easy feeling radiating into Kain's body. It didn't change anything about Kain's feeling of having been smashed by a giant boulder, but at least, it was a little more bearable.

“Where... where am I?”

“You are in the lands of the Eidolons. Here, the vile has no power, but we can't do anything against it either. Rydia has been grasped by the rotten darkness, and her powers faded immediately. We can't come to your world as helping powers any longer. Only as destructive forces.”

“Then... how was I saved?”

“I had to destroy the airship, in exchange for saving your life. But those men having been embraced by the vile... no one could have saved them. They were little more than puppets. I know, death isn't salvation, but in this case, it was the better fate.”

Kain fell silent, tears dripping down his face. He had known the Red Wings well, and to think that the vile had broken them down like this... It made him angry, and this very anger began to choke him.

“No, Kain, don't. Don't let the anger control you. If you allow rage to take over your heart, the dark seed will bloom in your soul.”

Asura was shuddering in definite fear, so were Leviathan and the two dragons. Kain relaxed with a few deep breaths, then fell limp against the soft coils of the dragons. So it hadn't been just a horrible nightmare. It was bitter reality. Baron had been flooded with the vile, and it was spreading throughout the world.

“The underworld is save, with its close connections to the Fay March. But... it's a cage at the same time. We can't leave this place. You are the only one able to do this. And... you are the only one who can enter the Tower of Babil. It's the only connection left to the world above, and the moons.”

Kain was helped to sit a little more upright, at the same time without putting too much strain on his wounds.

“What can I do?”

“You have to recover at first. The vile may prevented your death, but your healing is impaired, too. Time has frozen on the surface, and on the moons. If it will reach down even here, none of us is able to say.”

Asura brushed her hand through Kain's hair, as if she tried to calm him down, and not herself. Then, she smiled and shook her head lightly.

“We'll leave you and your dragons alone for now. When you're ready, we will show you the way to the underworld, and to the Tower of Babil.”

With that, Asura and Leviathan left, silence falling once more. Kain rubbed over his face, blinking up at the dragons then. They were patiently waiting for him to ask his questions, only blinking now and then with an audible snick.

“What am I supposed to do? I mean... I can't save the world on my own...”

“You can, Kain. And you have to. Except of you, there won't be any human soul free from the taint of the vile.”

“And we will help you. We need to unleash your true powers as dragoon.”

They lowered their heads now, resting them to both sides of Kain. Somehow, he felt like he was lying on an obscenely valuable throne, but that wasn't making anything better. He was afraid of what laid ahead, of what could happen still.

“Do you know why this happened? Where the vile came from?”

The dragons looked at each other, then at Kain. They were oddly identical, as if they were twins. They just happened to have different colors, but that wasn't important to them. They lived amongst each other in perfect harmony. A balance in itself, and none difficult to keep.

“Some say that the Jade Passage was opened again. It happened three times before. One time, it took out the lights of the crystals guarding the world. The earth decayed, the oceans raged, the wind stopped... and it would only have needed some more time until the Chaos of Fire would have reared it's head and turned the world into nothing more but a blackened orb, without life.”

“The second time, it was a man opening the Passage. Palmecias, the pitiful mortal, dreamed of power. What he got was Hell, and his soul was twisted until it no longer was human. But he could be defeated, both in life and afterlife.”

“The third time, finally, darkness itself came. It overpowered light, and time stopped. Only a small floating continent was safe from the impact of the darkness shrouding the world in its veil. Again, courageous souls were the reason for the vile being fought back and sealed.”

“But this here, this is different. The fourth opening of the Passage, and already, it is grasping the world this firmly. Whatever is thirsting for control and chaos this much, it must have gotten impatient. To ensure that no one would fight it this time, it flooded not only the world, but also the souls which would fight it.”

“But the souls are not lost, Kain. However tainted, a soul can't be destroyed completely. Cecil was the first to fall captive to the vile, but only because there was darkness in him already. Darkness on itself isn't harmful, though. It is the one making it their tool. You can still rescue them. You can break the spell having locked the earth and the moons in time. Babil's heritage, the Tower, will be the staircase to the moon.”

They fell silent again, looking at Kain with a somehow expectant expression. Kain lifted his hands, to stroke along their scaly hides. Sure, he had dreamed of being the hero, but not like that. It was a bit much, too sudden. He couldn't turn back, though. He had to save Cecil and Rosa.

“Then I hope that I'll recover fast. I will do it. I will go to the moon. And I will lock the Jade Passage for the fourth time.”


	3. Recovering

Kain only slowly recovered, much too slowly for his own liking. But whenever he tried to move, the echo of the horrible stabbing pain wavered through his body, making him feel like he would tense up too much to even be able to breathe again. The two dragons then would gently push him down, their scales neither hot nor cold against his skin. As if they were a part of him, nothing more and nothing less.

They were keeping him company while he was recovering, and for the first time in years, Kain had the feeling of being listened to, and understood. Before, he had talked to smiling faces forgetting everything about him the moment he would finish. Cecil had been having too many worries himself, and Rosa, well, she was more concerned about Cecil than anyone else.

"Can't the vile be destroyed?" Kain asked one day, as his bandages just had been changed. "It seems so pointless to seal it away."

"Without the vile, the good things can't exist either. Without hatred, there is no love."

"The vile exists as long as humans exist. It can't reach every heart and taint it. You may carry a seed, Kain, but it won't harm you enough for the vile to take over."

"So, technically, I'm the only thing between the vile and its absolute power."

Kain sighed and stared up, his eyes trailing the shades between the high white pillars with their complicated, exquisite ornaments. So he was the last man standing. The last hope of the world he had known. But that wasn't feeling right. He never had been the hero, and admittedly wasn't quite able to believe he would have to be the hero now.

Absentmindedly, he scratched along the dragons' heads. It calmed him down somewhat, but only somewhat. He knew that as soon as he had recovered completely, he had to start acting. And that was making him oddly nervous.

“You don't have to be nervous, Kain.”

“We feel your worries, and you really don't have to be. We are there for you. We _always_ have been, and we always will be.”

“I know. It's just odd to think that it won't be Cecil saving everyone. He is more likely the hero type, while I...” Kain sighed and shook his head. “I don't know if I can do that.”

“What makes you think you shouldn't be able to save the world?”

“What makes you think you should be inferior to Cecil?”

“I don't think I'm inferior to him. I just don't believe I indeed _am_ the type to save the day. That... I don't know how to describe it.”

The dragons uttered low, purring sounds, rubbing their massive heads against him, without ever giving Kain the feeling of being close to be squished or anything comparable. It was quite nice indeed, even more as they radiated soft warmth to make his rest more comfortable.

Their bodies moved slightly against his back, shifting his position. It was almost impossible for him to move on his own yet, therefore they made sure that he wouldn't get a sore back from having to lie around all the time.

“You'll have the confidence when time comes, of that we're sure.”

“You have outdone yourself several times, why shouldn't you manage this time?”

Kain scratched his neck lightly, shrugging then. He couldn't understand himself any longer, to be honest, but that shouldn't keep him from being mildly optimistic. Much more wasn't possible for him. After all, he barely had escaped the vile.

He tugged at the bandages a little, but without the intention to rip them off. He still wasn't all healed up, and even Asura's powerful healing magic couldn't fix him immediately. After all, the sword had been tainted by the vile itself, and the presence of the seed inside of him was making it harder for his body to recover from the wounds.

Letting out a deep sigh, the dragoon tried to ignore the once more bluntly pulsing pain in his lower half. It was effectively paralyzing him, with every single throb of pain wavering through him.

“I surely wished that the pain finally would stop. That I could get up and start to prepare.”

“There's no need to hurry yourself, Kain. Time flows differently here.”

“Adding to that, the planet and the moons are locked in time. You don't have to fear to lose any time but your own.”

“That's not really calming me down, you know.”

The two dragons chuckled deeply, which somehow sounded like they were in between growling and purring. That was much more of a soothing sound than anything else, and Kain began chuckling himself. Fine, so then he was being a little pessimistic there. He wouldn't stay pessimistic, though.

Sighing to himself, he leaned back into the coils, closing his eyes a little. He was tired, completely worn out from yet another day of doing nothing but focusing on his body and talking to the dragons. He wouldn't have been surprised if he had fallen back to the point of where he had to completely restart his whole training. And that wouldn't be easy to catch up with.

“How big are the odds I _will_ have to train a damned lot to be somewhere near as strong as before?”

“Actually, it shouldn't be that bad, Kain. We, after all, are a part of you. And we don't feel especially weakened.”

“So there's no reason to fear that you'll have to go through all of that pain of a training again.”

Kain rolled his eyes, but he didn't talk back against them. They were knowing him far too well, so there was no chance he could talk against it. He would need to find anything else than that to get them to keep silent.

_While Kain was recovering from his wounds in the Fay March, the vile was still trying to break down the spirits it had captured. But it wasn't in any hurry, oh no. There was no need to worry about time any longer, was there. And before the dragoon would climb the Tower of Babil, they most possibly already would be broken down completely..._


	4. Step By Step

After a felt eternity, Kain finally could get up from his unusual 'bed'. As he had suspected, he wasn't entirely secure on his feet, staggering with every few steps as he got used to the feeling of walking again. The bluntly pulsing pain of the seed having been planted into him had decreased to an unimportant stinging, easily to be ignored. Still, it was there, warning him to never forget about what had happened there.

The Fay March offered peace and a somewhat stable life to Kain. Even if they weren't affected by the frozen time, it was unsettling for the dragoon to be here. To know that here, in the Fay March, time flowed differently, was enough to make him think about it. If the flow of time differed from that of the world he had known, how would that change if the rest of the world had stopped aging?

Sometimes, when he wandered around the city the Eidolons inhabited, he wondered what was going on in the frozen world. Was it going this far that no one could move any longer? That even a drop, falling from a leave, would freeze in mid-air, shimmering in a sun never setting? Or was it a different kind of time having stopped, the sort of making life into something closer to death than before?

The two dragons accompanying his every step couldn't answer this question. They were knowing quite something, but they couldn't predict what the future would bring. Most possibly, it would take some time before the future even could exist again. For the time being, there was nothing but the present.

The thought of all those who had fallen under the influence of the vile made Kain angry and anxious at the same time. How was he supposed to help all of them? How was he supposed to help any of them? He couldn't tell for sure if he would be able to muster the courage, really. It was... it was hard to even decide where to start _thinking_ without getting to a point where hopelessness would be taking over again.

In such moments, one of the dragons would gently prod his muzzle against Kain's upper arm, or start to deeply rumble, which was supposed to be a purr. Or at least, the dragoon assumed so. He didn't wonder too much about it, it was just nice to know they were there for him.

“Are you still doubting yourself?”

“Or are you finally getting to a point where this doubt is decreasing?”

It was impossible to tell apart the two dragons, however different they were. Their voices mingled perfectly, but there still was the feeling that there indeed were two different voices speaking. One time, a lower, rougher voice would be better audible, then in the next instant, it was the higher, softer voice. But Kain couldn't tell which voice belonged to which dragon.

“Maybe, I'm somewhere in between those two points. But you said yourself that at some point, I _will_ have the courage to challenge my destiny and fight for those still out there. For all of those who haven't been broken down by the vile.”

For some time, there was silence between them. Around the unusual group, the Eidolons were busily rustling along the wooden bridges forming the only streets in the Fay March. It always seemed to be something overly important they were tending to, and still, there was no shouting if they couldn't immediately pass a group chattering in the middle of their way.

It was chaos, and yet order. Neither darkness nor light dominated this realm. It wasn't dry or humid, cold or warm. Just... balanced. Everything was balanced here, as a result of more than hundreds of thousands years. Fascinating and yet so unreal...

“What would you say if that courage never came? That the years passed here, your body growing older and at some point unable to bear the pressure any longer?”

“What would you do if that point was reached, without the courage ever coming? Without the power to rip through the vile and save those you love?”

“That won't happen. I have to do it. I... I _have_ to bring up the power to save them. To climb the Tower of Babil, and reach the moon. I don't know if it will be the only way, but it is the only one I can think of. Anything else seems to be... too optimistic.”

The two dragons laughed lowly, settling down close to the dragoon. They were still supporting him, even if sometimes, they seemed to have doubts. But most of the times, it was just a test for the dragoon. The other times, it was simple teasing. It kept Kain on edge, and seemed to be just the right thing to motivate him.

A faint breeze brushed against Kain's skin, and for a short moment, he felt like he was in the mountains again. Where he would train day and night for the perfect jump, for the perfect lance wielding. He hadn't given up, ever. And why should it be different this time?

“So, how are you going to train, Kain?”

“Are you gong to rush, or take it with delight?”

“You are asking questions...” Kain chuckled, shrugging his shoulders then. “I guess that I will need to take it step by step. Anything else would be suicide.”

Which would start with him getting used to his armor again. To wielding a spear, to feel the weight of plates and metal shaft, to coordinate even with the weight slowing him down noticeably. It would be like the very first year with the dragoons. He was already looking forward to this experience.

But up to then, he would need to rebuild his strength. Even with the influence of the dragons and the Eidolons around him, it wouldn't be enough to completely keep him from losing some of his strength. Or at least, he assumed so. No way he would be completely himself after lying around for so many days.

Stretching with a light grimace, he then looked up at the unreal sky above the Fay March. It had an odd purplish color, as if there was red dust in the air, mixing with the sky's color. Actually, it was pretty. It gave the whole scenery something utterly supernatural. Quite matching, he would have claimed. But, there were more important things to take care of. He couldn't lie around and marvel the skies.

_Step by step rebuilding his strength. Go the same way again he had started years ago. How much time would it take him to become himself again, and better than before?_


	5. Dragon Blood

Months passed in the Fay March while Kain was training hard to compensate for the long time without proper movement. He couldn't give everything yet, with the at times sensitive scar, but that didn't keep him up for long. The dragons were always there, as well as the Eidolons to aid him with his training.

Not only his jump had been slacking in all of those months, his general fighting power had decreased to barely half what he had been able to do before. It annoyed and angered him, but at the same time, it fueled his determination in training. There was no way he would let the vile have its triumph if he could do something against it.

The doubt had gone, finally. Kain was too angered to be afraid any longer. How _dared_ this thing to take away his friends, everyone he knew, and make them attack him? He would pay the vile back. He had to. Because no one else could.

The two dragons accompanying him became just as ferocious as Kain. Only after a long training, they would go back to their former calm selves, but as long as the dragoon was wielding his lance, they would roar and be heard all over the Fay March. Efreet, Shiva and Ramuh would be his main training partners, Titan provided him a reason to work on a perfect jump, and with Asura, he learned to keep a cool head in battle, while still being merciless with fighting.

After training, when he was drenched in sweat and exhausted, Kain sometimes started to thinking about the 'what if'. What if it wouldn't have been him, but Cecil escaping the vile? Would the dark knight have acted the same way? Then he always told himself that Cecil, indeed, would have done the same. He would have fought, without doubt.

_'And now, I have to fight. I have to fight to make the world whole again. I have to fight to give the light back to the land I have known.'_

That one of his friends could already have broken down beneath the vile's influence never occurred to him. They wouldn't give up fighting that easily. They had strong spirits, nothing which easily could be overwhelmed. Therefore, he needed to erase any doubt from his mind, should it even come to him. The thought of being reunited with laughing people was the little extra drive Kain needed to surpass himself.

He never quite had believed that being a dragoon meant having something like dragon blood in his veins. It had sounded much too fantastic for Kain, though if he was looking at the roaring dragons having come from within him (at least, Leviathan and Asura both had claimed so), then there had to be _something_ about it.

Some now and then, Kain would skip training, though, in order to read in the library of the Fay March. Here, he found knowledge the human world long ago had lost, about Eidolons and past events alike. Like this, he found out about the Jade Passage. The dragons already had talked about it, but he hadn't quite believed in its existence. Now, Kain knew better than to doubt them any longer.

_The Jade Passage, a gate to what was called 'Underworld', 'Otherworld' or 'Pandemonium', was a place close to the mages' town Mysidia. Where exactly it was located, though, was a mystery. Some claimed it was connected to the Devil's Road, others were convinced Mount Ordeal sealed the entrance. Again others believed that the Lunar Whale had been hidden in the Jade Passage, but that was a theory only a hand full supported._

_The most possible location for the Jade Passage is Mount Ordeal, where dark energies have made the ones having failed its trials come back to life to test the ones yet to come to the rocky cliffs and slopes. If the monsters haunting the human world really came from there is an other question, though._

_The Jade Passage isn't a place of evil energies alone, though. Somewhere in the depths of the 'Otherworld', the city of those who have passed on is located. Mahanon, City of Souls, harbors those having been killed in wars and monster assaults. It's a safe haven, and a passage from the Underworld to the Fay March._

_In Mahanon, the Eidolons have been born, from souls having proven to be critical for the world's ongoing existence. Furthermore, the souls of Mahanon have sent valuable artifacts to the world above, such as 'Minwu's Tear', a jewel terribly sought after by many white mages, and the 'Moon Maiden', a hairpin infused with Lunarian powers._

_Without doubt, Mahanon is the cradle of many wondrous things. But for how long it has been existing already, and who built it, has never been clear. The most plausible theory, though, is connected to the four crystals. As the Jade Passage had been opened for the first time, allowing the four Chaos Incarnations to torment the world, the four crystals had been set alight again to repel the evil of Chaos and seal the vile back into the Passage._

_The four nameless heroes having sealed the Passage were known as the Crystal Bearers. It was them having infused the crystals with their souls, and having given them life and conscience. Ever since, the light of the crystals never has been extincted again. They guard the world they have saved from becoming a dead planet, devoid of any life._

_Through the crystals, the four Bearers reached every world, and maybe have initiated the existence of Mahanon. The souls of those having helped to save the world whenever the Jade Passage had been torn open would find their last rest there, aiding the heroes yet to come with their gifts for the world and the Fay March._

Kain smiled to himself as he closed the old tome. Being reborn after joining the souls in the safe haven of Mahanon... that sounded like paradise. The dragons, who had once more served him as a strange kind of seat, where uttering low sounds of agreement. Mahanon, where death and life were connected, seemed to be a nice place to go to. But not yet. They still had to earn the privilege.

Therefore, Kain was training harder than ten men. He unleashed the dragon inside himself, let it roar with untamed power and lead him in his training fights. Even Odin and Bahamut now challenged him in training battles, giving him more of a reason to put all of his heart into the merciless training sessions and outdo not only himself, but the Eidolons, too.

After an especially rough training session, Kain was practically boneless. Every part of his body hurt, but it was a damned good hurting. It was the proof he needed that he was training hard and without mercy towards himself. He needed to do it this way, to be ready for the challenges which laid ahead. That, and for the complications which might yet came for him. Not that he was particularly afraid. He was just aware that the longer he would need in the tower, the more dangerous it would become for him. He wanted to rush through that damned thing as fast as somehow possible.

"You're truly dedicated, Kain. A dragon amongst the knights, and in more than one way." Bahamut sounded quite proud, and it made Kain grin in self-confidence.

"I'm giving everything, because there's nothing more I can do."

"True indeed, Kain. You pour all of yourself into this task. I'm almost a little envious of so much dedication."

Bahamut settled down next to Kain, eyes at some point in the distance. The dragon Eidolon had to be just as worried as he was, Kain was convinced of that. How much had those eyes seen already, how many worrying, and frightening things? Surely nothing he would want to repeat, Kain was quite sure of that.

"Are you, too, from the City of Souls?"

"You mean Mahanon?" Bahamut had turned his head towards Kain with visible interest.

"Yes. I have been reading about it, and couldn't stop myself from wondering what soul you derived from. If that ever happened, of course."

"Ah, Kain, you're strange, you know that?" Bahamut had begun to laugh deeply, then he nodded faintly. "I was born from the soul of a wyvern rider. The first generation of dragoons. Ricard was my soul's name. Now I'm Bahamut, Ruler of Dragons."

Kain was visibly impressed, slowly nodding as his eyes took in everything about Bahamut once again. Was that the reason why he felt so fascinated by the gigantic Eidolon? It had to be, otherwise, he couldn't explain why he would want to be close to Bahamut at every opportunity.

"I think you should try to visit and train in the Whisperwind Cave. There, the Crystal Bearers found the Altar of Wind. It's a strange place, and an even better dungeon to train."

"But it is dangerous and most possibly quite long." Kain guessed.

"Yes indeed. But believe me, it's worth it. You'll emerge from it as a dragoon to be feared by the vile itself."  


	6. Whisperwind Cave

True to Bahamut's words, the Altar of Wind proved to be a most strange place. Even on the ground floor of the cave, Kain felt the pulsing energies emitting from deeper inside the cave. A pair of elven statues was guarding the entrance, and a stone plate with engraved runes seemed to bear a warning. The dragons read it, nodding at each other and at Kain.

"The elves warn us of entering it, should we be of vile nature. The Altar of Wind expels any intruders, as the Wind Crystal is at full power."

"But they welcome the ones testing their strength. They do advice to be cautious, though. The strong energies twist the dungeon, and you never will know where you might come to while you wander around in it."

Kain whistled lowly, then smirked to himself. There was only one way to find out if he was ready for the Tower of Babil, and that was heading straight for the very bottom of the Whisperwind Cave. Even if it would be twisted and a most foreign place, he had to do it. Else, he couldn't be sure if he would ever reach the moon with his training. The dragons pushed the door open, and Kain entered the dungeon of the Altar of Wind.

A suffocating smell rushed into his nose as he set foot on the first underground level. As it seemed, the Whisperwind Cave would be partly swamp-like, with a cave full of slime and other nasties. That was his chance. Kain would need to prove himself. He _had_ to prove himself something, or he would go mad with the tension of being indecisive.

Bahamut had helped him coming to the Altar itself, but he had been warned that he would need to find his way back himself. He was free to return any time if it was getting too much. But Kain had the full intention of going through the whole dungeon, to the bitter end, so to speak. Or rather a hopefully not bitter end, as he corrected himself.

Every step seemed to trigger some kind of trap; slime monsters, gargoyles and cockatrices swarming towards him, giving Kain a hard time to focus. And according to the smell wavering up from the slippery stairs leading further down, there would be still more swamp areas waiting ahead. But even so, there was only one way: further down, into the bowels of the Whisperwind Cave.

While he fought his way through the hordes of monsters, Kain found no time to worry about what would lurk at the deepest point. Bahamut already had told him about a weapon sealed on the very last floor, but he couldn't worry about it really. There was only room for thoughts on the next step, the next movement of his body, the next monster to be slaughtered.

At the seventh floor, finally, there was a break from the eternal stench of the swamp. Instead, it now was a cave with earthen smell, something spicy and strangely calming. Kain took a deep breath, shaking himself lightly. Thick goo dripped down from his armor, staining the otherwise surprisingly clean ground with green spots. Now that was a nice surprise. The even growing monster hordes, however, made the change of the whole scenery rather unimportant.

His dragons kept in the background, most of the time, taking care of the enemies Kain couldn't have reacted to fast enough. Some now and then, the black one unleashed his fire breath, while the white one refreshed Kain with small healing spells. In some way, or so the dragoon thought, they were like Cecil and Rosa to him. But at the same time, they could never have replaced his friends.

As the onslaught of enemies finally faded out and left Kain a little breathless, the dragons uttered low growling sounds. Something was entirely wrong about the cave. It was much too... _linear_ , almost, in its composition. Usually, the 'staircases' were more like teleporters, which could lead anywhere. Two similar floors weren't unusual, while six swamp floors without anything in between was more than worrying.

"Someone is awaiting us at the bottom. And it's not the usual monster."

"That could mean something good, but I dare to doubt it."

Kain agreed idly. From what Bahamut had told him, he would have assumed that this whole dungeon would feel messed up and unnatural. Up to this point, however, everything had been in a certain order. And that wasn't exactly calming them down. The dragoon shook out his limbs a little, then shrugged his shoulders. No way back, they had to go to the bottom. And after that, he swore himself, he would head for the top of the Tower of Babil.

On his way through the floors of the dungeon, the dragons collected treasures from stray chests around the floor. Kain was mostly occupied with keeping the monsters at bay, while the dragons were busy plundering and getting every treasure there was. Most of the times, it were rusted weapons and rotten, unidentified 'stuff', but in some instances, it were valuable items.

The dragons called them 'boosts', and after some of them, Kain began to slowly understand what they meant. The effect was small, but it was permanent. Summed up, it gave his fighting performance quite the kick. While he still had been slacking in the begin of the Altar, he now was fully back, able to deal with the hordes much more easily than ever before. Good that they were rare, though. Kain wanted to gather strength on his own, and not solely by boosting his body with those strange, edible... _things_ .

Most oddly, the tenth floor was devoid of anything. The dragons growled as they couldn't sense the usual guardian to the next stratum of the dungeon, which made Kain nervous. He had prepared himself for the tougher beasts, but as there was none of them, he was mildly confused. For a short time, he was tempted to step onto the tile which would have led him back to the Fay March, but his determination and pride refused such a thing to happen. He had to find out what had happened in the Whisperwind Cave, as it might have something to do with the vile.

At some point, Kain lost track of which floor he was on. Somewhere between the twentieth and the thirtieth, that much was for sure. The dragons had to aid him more often, and the onslaught of enemies was almost overwhelming. Growling and roaring, the dragons slashed through several enemies, while Kain had a hard time to not lose his focus. For some reason, though, he wasn't tired. He felt a little strained, yes, but there wasn't any exhaustion settling in yet. As if the stopped time had influenced the Whisperwind Cave, too, and was keeping it from draining him. However that was making sense, he couldn't explain either.

Finally, the thirtieth floor. He exhaled lowly, sitting down in the flower fields of this rather unusual dungeon floor. There were people around him, or rather the echoes and illusions of those once having come across the floor. They lived on here, in a truly utopic world.

"Seems that even the Hell Train won't show up. Strange indeed."

"It _is_ punctual any other time. Running late can only mean something more powerful has destroyed it completely."

"Why do I have the feeling you want to demoralize me completely?"

The two dragons looked at each other, chuckling then. That wasn't their intention, never had been, so they now shut up and allowed themselves some rest, too. They had come far by now, therefore there wasn't any reason why it shouldn't be allowed to stay here for some time.

"The last few floors ahead have to be those resembling the Floating Fortress."

"A place built by the Lufenians, or rather their ancestors."

"The Chaos of Wind has resided there. Tiamat, a dragon with many heads, that was this Incarnation of Chaos."

"But the Crystal Bearers were victorious, and the winds since then have whistled."

They fell quiet again, while Kain was drawing in a little sandy patch. It were just curls and waves, helping him to calm down. The dragoon was aware of what would lie ahead, of the possibility that there was a certain danger lurking for them on the fortieth and last floor of the dungeon. The very bottom of this labyrinth, harboring something of superior power.

"I do wonder what made the dungeon fall into order." Kain remarked not without a certain sarcasm. "As it would have been so overly chaotic for normal."

"We can't be sure what has made them line up like this."

"We can only assume and then find out what is the truth."

Sighing and nodding, Kain got up, shaking out the dirt having gotten stuck between the plates of his armor. Passing the shapes of humans, who weren't more than illusions and echoes, he approached the last stratum of the dungeon.

 _'Whatever is down there will prove to be my biggest challenge up to now. I just can feel it. Hold on a while longer, my friends, I need to settle this at first. Once and for all, I have to clear this.'_   


	7. A True Dragoon

As the dragons had suspected, the surroundings were remembering of a floating castle. Kain drew his lance, but there was no need for it apparently. For some odd reason, the usual monster hordes weren't immediately storming at him the moment he made even one step forward. Still, he stayed cautious. He had the feeling that there was someone lurking for him, only waiting for the moment he would let his defense slack.

The only audible thing was the whistling of the wind, which brushed through the castle. It was much weaker than he would have assumed for such a height. Or, was he even this high in the sky? He was confused, but not enough to ever let his lance touch the ground. He wanted to find out what had happened. What was making him feel this nervous?

One step after the other, he approached the next teleporting tile. Most curiously, there was absolutely no monster. How... could that be? He had fought countless monsters before, and now, there wasn't even a trace of them. Curious, really curious. But he would not let that hinder him to approach the end of the Whisperwind Cave.

No matter where he looked, in the fourth stratum of the dungeon, there wasn't even a sign of the monsters. Not even one of their cries was heard anywhere. It was almost more unsettling than having to face the rushing hordes coming his way, and somehow, Kain became a little nervous.

But most of all, anger was rising in him. Was this mysterious fiend lurking at the base of the Whisperwind Cave mocking him? Was he trying to challenge him and prove him that there was nothing that this fiend feared? He better started to pray soon, because Kain was feeling like he had the power to rip apart worlds now.

He hadn't come here to be mocked by whoever had extincted all the higher fiends of the dungeon, and all of the monster hordes of the lowest stratum. Kain got a tighter grip on his lance, before he stepped onto the last teleporter. He would soon face whoever had changed the Whisperwind Cave however he liked...

“Ah, Kain, I already awaited you.”

There was no one to be seen, only this mocking voice speaking up and seeming to come from everywhere at once.

“You have proven to be quite tough. Tougher than I would have thought.”

Steps came closer, but there still wasn't even a hint on who was talking there. Kain didn't answer the taunting voice, nor did the dragons. He wouldn't let this voice mock him to the point that they would get him to make any mistakes.

“And so brave you are. So very brave, and stupid, too. I could have killed you so many times before, but you still trust me. Strange indeed.”

“You're not making much sense, you know.”

Kain smirked as he almost could feel that whoever was keeping his mouth shut there was slowly growing angry.

“Silence! I lured you in here, and there is no way I will let you mock me, you poor excuse of a dragoon.”

“Oh, I'm shaking in my boots. Please.”

Now, there was an angry roar, and a mirror close to Kain broke. He hadn't noticed it up to now, but what emerged from it made him freeze for a short time. There, clad in a perfectly pitch black armor, accompanied by two bony dragons, was a perfect doppelganger of himself. Though, as things were here, Kain had the feeling that this wasn't just a doppelganger.

“Well, not this cocky all of a sudden?”

“You're not the one to talk.”

“Then let's find out who is the true one of us!”

The dark image of Kain launched forward, their clashing lances creating a quite ugly sound. The dragons, too, snapped at each other, growling and filling the Whisperwind Cave with a deafening sound. It was almost like they were creating an earthquake, with how loudly they were growling at each other.

All the while Kain was fighting, he had the feeling that this wasn't a mirrored version of him, or in any way related to him. There was something horribly wrong and _twisted_ about this strange dragoon.

_'Why do I have the feeling that this is the side of me having been extincted at some point? I mean... I was a candidate for the post as dark knight, too. But Cecil was there first, and he got the education. I, on the other hand, lived my dream to become a dragoon.'_

And what if that was Cecil's dream? The dream of becoming a dragoon?

Suddenly, Kain stopped, merely unbalancing the other dragoon and pinning him down. The dragons had vanished out of sight, and out of earshot, too. Which was quite the wonder, as it was impossible to not hear them when they were in some kind of vicinity.

“What are you planning to do now, huh?”

“I'm still asking myself.”

Kain pressed the shaft of his lance against the other's throat, keeping him pinned firmly. Somehow, he pitied whoever was there beneath the dark armor. But... this wasn't a real dragoon. What was a real, genuine dragoon then?

It was a good question, and he began to wonder about it. The other had ceased the struggling, and Kain could feel the other's eyes resting on him. There was something about this dragoon... Something Kain felt familiar with, but not because it had happened to himself. No, he had watched it happening with a friend.

He never had envied Cecil for the occupation as a dark knight. Dark knights led a lonely life, if they hadn't got a friend like Rosa. Or, in Cecil's case, friends like Rosa and Kain. They had known each other for all of their lives, and if they wouldn't have stuck together like they had, then Cecil most possibly would have lost his mind in the surge of dark energy he day after day had to allow to pass his body.

“Are you pitying me, Kain? Are you mourning over the past?”

“No, I'm not. I merely ask myself if I ever could have been you, but I don't think so.”

He let the other go, even if that would have been a horribly wrong decision in other cases. No, in this case, it was the only decision there was. The only way to end this. No killing, not like this. Even if he had obeyed the king for such a long time, even if he had learned to kill, Kain didn't feel the need here.

The stranger pulled off the helmet, and there, beneath the black metal, appeared a face being an odd mix of Kain's and Cecil's. Kain was startled to see it, much more as there was a soft smile on the stranger's face.

“You did well, Kain Highwind. You are a dragoon how I imagined it. How I always wanted to be. You know what this 'I' is. There's no need to pity me, ever. Everything came how it had to come. So, Kain, go and fulfill your destiny. You know that you need to go on. The Tower of Babil will be the next step on your journey. But not the last, Kain. There still is something more to do.”

Their hands touched faintly, but Kain could feel the surge of power. There was more to his task than just climbing the Tower of Babil and hoping to find an answer on what to do there to reverse everything the vile had done. There was something more to it. He had to wake someone from a long slumber who was supposed to be awake.

_'You don't know him yet, Kain. But I will lead you. I'm what could have become of you and Cecil both. I am a part of you, as I am of Cecil. In time, you will understand what your friend's feelings are like for you.'_


	8. Silent World

Kain found himself standing in the middle of the Fay March again. But now, there was no sound to be heard. Nothing moved, as if the Eidolons had abandoned everything in a hurry. The dragoon didn't call out for anyone, merely bid farewell to the Fay March. Now, the freezing of time had reached this place, too.

He was all alone. This knowledge didn't disturb him that much, though. It rather created a strange calm feeling in his chest. This was it, he could only go forward. His next stop would be the very base floor of the Tower of Babil.

But first, he would have to leave the Fay March. That was a quite bothersome travel on its own, but he didn't complain. Kain didn't feel tired or unsure any longer. There was only one target in his mind, and he needed to accomplish it.

His steps echoed throughout the now empty cavern, giving it a whole new dimension of deserted. For a moment, the dragoon wondered what exactly had happened that everything would be silent, but there would be no answer to it anyway. Therefore, he merely went on. He had no other choice, had he?

_'None of my friends or the Eidolons can help me any longer. The only one remaining am I. Everyone else is frozen in time or caught in the vile.'_

He held his lance by his side, hoping he wouldn't have to do anything he would regret at any time. He didn't want to have to fight against his friends, however close to the vile they had gotten by now. Kain prayed that there wouldn't be such a fight. If he would have to face Cecil, he rather would die than to harm his best friend.

Even his envy at Cecil and Rosa being this close to each other, sometimes giving him the feeling of being excluded, was by far not enough to diminish the sweet memories of their shared experiences. They always had been together, had given each other hope and an aim in life. He wouldn't ever want to forget that, however desperate the situation.

_'I hope they are alright. I couldn't bear the knowledge they could be broken down by now. They are what I want to return to. My friends are the only family I have, after all.'_

The heat of the underworld greeted him as he left the Fay March, though it seemed less intense than usually. Strange indeed, but it was, in a twisted way, only logical something like that would happen. After all, the time was stopping here, too. He still could see the lava lazily moving, but even that movement would stop soon. At least, he could still move about without being stopped by anything.

Sighing to himself, Kain glanced around. In the distance, he could see the massive tower reaching up into the distant darkness of the underworld's sky. The bottom of the world above, his world. The world he no longer would have recognized, frozen over as it was.

Sadness stirred in his heart, but Kain fought it back. He couldn't weep over what seemed to be lost now. The dragoon took a deep breath, savoring the distant smell of fires and molten stone. He would come back, and everything would be as it had been before the vile. He swore himself it would be like that.

The two dragons had vanished long ago, on the very bottom of the Whisperwind Cave. At the same time, they hadn't, though. He knew they still were there. He could feel their presence, though rather in a way that they were with him. A reassuring feeling, even if he would have loved to talk to them again. But as it seemed, he would have to do this all alone, before anyone would talk to him.

Step by step, he was wandering through the silent world, frozen in time. Had he been away this long? He couldn't tell, there was nothing giving him an answer on how long it had taken for him to travel to the bowels of the Whisperwind Cave.

Even if he would have known it, Kain doubted he wanted to know exactly how long he had taken to go through this unusual training. Flexing his hands lightly, he glanced up as the Tower of Babil slowly came closer. He was a little nervous, but that was all. Else, there was just calmness and determination. Like before a fight, or before a mission with the Red Wings.

The only difference this time was that nothing was telling him what was right and what was wrong. Such things didn't exist for the moment. And everything seemed to be a single moment for now. No future, no past. Just the here and now.

_'Who could want such a world? Only something never having understood what it means to be truly alive.'_

The world wasn't made to be constant. It needed change and the influence of many things on each other. Every single being in this world needed something else. They needed a sense, an ultimate aim. Something like staying frozen in time couldn't be an aim, never could be one, and never would be one.

Kain nodded to himself as he stopped for a short time, taking a long look around. Even now, the lava was giving off light, being the only thing keeping the underworld from being completely dark. Light where no light ever could be. A strange, and somehow nice thought. But there were more urgent things for Kain now.

A few low hills were still parting him from the plain before the Tower of Babil. Most possibly, the plain would be crawling with monsters. He felt the dragons stirring inside of him, ready to break out and fight. And he was ready, too. He would defend what he valued. He would fight for what he missed. And he would bring back the time this world needed.

_'Pretty strong thoughts for my standards. I have no clue if and how I will do it, but I just have to manage in some way. There's nothing which could keep me from giving everything.'_

Determination without match was flooding his conscience. He needed to manage on his own. Kain had no choice if he wanted to change this silent world back to the one full with laughter and tears alike. He would need a will stronger than adamant to overcome the trials ahead.

As he had suspected, the plains before him were almost completely covered in monsters. They were fighting against each other, as if they had grown bored. As soon as some of them noticed him, their screeching was enough to make the others stop the fighting (though it happened only slowly), and focus completely on the human approaching them.

As nothing else was to be heard, the calls of the monsters were unnaturally loud and shrill in Kain's ears. He cringed more than just one time as he fought against the hordes once more storming up against him. But the training in the Whisperwind Cave had been enough. They couldn't stop him, not now, and not like that.

Even if he couldn't see them, Kain knew that the two dragons were there to support him. He remained perfectly focused as he slashed through the masses, not letting anything distract him at this very moment. He needed to do this, else he couldn't approach the Tower of Babil.

The sickening screeching almost made him lose his focus, but Kain refused to stop. He wanted to end this as soon as possible. He wouldn't be able to cope with being alone for a long time, therefore he needed to put all of his effort into reaching his goal.

_'The vile won't stop me. I won't stop fighting until it is sealed back in the Jade Passage.'_

After a felt eternity, the monsters _finally_ were defeated. Panting, Kain leaned onto his lance, recovering from the intense fight. He could hear faint sound, but wasn't able to identify them.

Wondering if he was about to lose his mind, Kain straightened up. Was it possible that there was someone else there? That someone had 'survived' the vile and was searching for a way to end it, just like him? But he couldn't quite believe so. He had to go on anyway, so he couldn't keep himself up with a mere hope.

Once more, everything was quiet. Kain stepped over heaps of monster bodies, which slowly were dissolving into something looking like black sand. But even that subsided eventually, and there was nothing left hinting that there had been a fight. It would only be a question of time until the next wave would come, of that Kain was sure. It was time to go on, and stop wondering about what laid ahead.

In this silent world, he moved, only thinking about what he missed about his former life. Cecil, Rosa, the castle of Baron... The Red Wings, his training with the other dragoons... But most of all, he missed the sounds. Silence was something he never had been able to endure. As strange as it sounded, he wanted to hear childrens' laughter and rain drumming against the roofs. Yet another reason to kick the vile's ugly ass back to wherever it had come from.  


	9. To The Moons

Inside the tower, it once more was strangely silent. Kain's steps echoed through the deserted building, evidence of humanity's dreams to reach further than anyone before them. From afar, he could hear a soft ticking, as if a clock was telling him his time was running out.

This time, he wasn't imagining this noise. It was only very faint, but as soon as he had made it to a higher floor, it was a tad louder. Kain smiled to himself, a little sarcastic though. He did wonder if this steady little noise was meaning something good. If it ever could mean anything good. But he would hopefully find out soon.

After a while, his steps became as regular as the faint noise leading him further up. The tower itself was a maze, and often enough, he had to return to the previous floor to find the right way up. He didn't lose his temper over it, though. It was as if the noise kept him calm and grounded.

_'There has to be someone waiting for me. At least I hope so. I don't care if it's a monster or anything like that, I just want to see someone standing there and know I have been climbing the tower because of them.'_

Kain sighed about this almost hopeless sounding thought of his, shaking his head. Ever since the two dragons had left him, he had the feeling of being quite unsteady, and that surely wasn't a funny feeling. Rather a worrying streak coming forward slowly, but surely.

There was nothing telling him where exactly he was in the tower. It could have been the tenth or twentieth floor, he couldn't have told any longer. The occasional dead end, and the resulting need to turn around and go looking for a different way up were confusing him beyond words.

But at least, Kain had the _feeling_ of getting somewhere, of really ascending in the tower. With every floor, he felt a little lighter, though the heat was telling him that he still was in the stratum of the underworld part. He never had been on his own like that, but he wasn't really worrying about it.

The only thing bothering him was the fact that there seemed to be no visible end to the tower, at least not yet. What if he would break down even before he left the first part? That would have led to a quite big problem now, wouldn't it.

But as he had thought that, he finally entered a floor greatly differing from the previous ones. Glancing around, Kain tried to see anything hinting how he could proceed, but at first sight, everything looked like a big dead end. It couldn't be like that, could it?

The dragoon scratched his neck lightly, considering how he was supposed to go further up. Maybe there was a special tile he had to step on for getting to the higher levels of the tower? He could try to find it, and if there wasn't anything, well, then he would have a reason to worry.

In the center of the room, or rather a hall, he then noticed a round tile, shimmering slightly despite the frozen time having affected the tower itself, too. Should he _really_ risk it? There was no other option, but still, it looked a little suspicious.

He couldn't afford to be picky over the means to travel further, though, so Kain took a deep breath and stepped onto the round tile.

_The instant he had set a foot on it, Kain felt how something grasped him, then his surroundings began to flicker. He knew this feeling, and this sight, from the Whisperwind Cave. Inwardly, he sighed in relief, even more as he arrived in a slightly different room. The first stratum was over, as it seemed, but there still was the biggest part of the tower to climb._

As before in the underworld stratum, Kain heard nothing but the ticking noise. He had come a little closer, that much he could tell, but how far it still was away was something he couldn't even have guessed. Without many other sounds to compare, and without a clue how tall the Tower of Babil was, his best guess was that some strange clock still was ticking at about the halfway point to the moon stratum.

Then again, could a tower even reach this far up? It was hard to imagine, even harder since the moon was moving constantly. Who knew where this tower was leading to?

_'And what if there is no need to climb the tower? After all, it couldn't go up all the way to the moon. I doubt any of those strange tiles ever would be strong enough to bring me all the way to the moons.'_

Just as he had thought so, Kain noticed a shimmering light. It was weak, but there was no mistaking it. Outside, he would find the next answer, maybe even the way how he could end this whole nightmare.

A cool breeze greeted him as he stepped out of the Tower of Babil. Kain shuddered lightly, but soon couldn't feel the cold any longer. Apparently, his body had heated up to accommodate to the harsh temperatures. Still, Kain felt that he should be shuddering, from the sight of the frozen world before him alone.

The wind was barely more than an unsteady breeze, the birds unmoving in mid-air. The plants moving with the weak breeze looked unreal, like imitations of trees. The weak light of a pale sun wasn't enough to chase off all of the darkness the world was wrapped up in.

This was the dream of the vile? A world devoid of any life, light and sound? Kain could barely believe it. Then again, the vile didn't know _anything_ about the world, about how it was. Little wonder, as it usually was sealed somewhere behind the Jade Passage.

The dragoon took off his helmet, holding it by his side. How long had he been away? Had the difference in time still been in effect as he had been in the Fay March? He couldn't quite believe so. So the vile had been given far more time to break down its' victims than he would have liked.

Still, Kain managed a sneer. As if the vile could ever break down spirits like those of Cecil and Rosa. He was convinced that they still were fighting the influence of the vile having grasped the world.

_'Hold on for a little longer. I will push the vile back behind the Jade Passage. It might take a Hell lot of power, but I'll muster this strength. For you, and for our future.'_

As if his thoughts had been heard, a distant thundering caught his attention. Kain looked up, his eyes widening in surprise as he saw a titanic airship coming his way. It was barely sinking, though, and he understood fast. He had to jump on board, there was no time to maneuver this giant to the ground and pull it back up.

Clutching the helmet and his lance tightly, Kain leaped up, his legs easily carrying over the impossible distance. The airship quickly drew closer, filling his entire range of vision. He extended his hand, and managed to grab a low railing. Huffing, Kain pulled himself up, just to feel his body being lifted by some strange force and dragged into the gigantic airship.

Inside, a warm light embraced him. Kain panted as he was dropped onto a metallic underground, remembering him of the Tower of Babil. Shaking his head, he slowly rose to his feet, glancing around if he could see anyone close by. There was someone standing in front of a softly glowing crystal, and for some reason, Kain felt that this someone was familiar.

The stranger turned towards him, and for a moment, Kain could merely stare. He looked like an older version of Cecil, but at the same time, there was something _decidedly_ different from his best friend. The other male nodded at him, touching the crystal briefly. The airship vibrated softly, then Kain felt they were moving.

"Who are you?" he finally managed to stutter.

"How rude of me, I'm sorry. I'm Golbez, a messenger from the Lunarians. And you must be Kain, the Dragoon. You really survived the vile, as it appears."

Kain nodded slowly, a little unsure now. He still was clutching on his helmet and lance, as he wasn't sure what to think of the other. Golbez it was? He looked like one of the legendary paladins, and that made Kain wish that he could have behaved more self-confidently around Golbez. But it just didn't work out.

The white, silvery shimmering plates, the circlet, and the wide cloak seemed to radiate a soft light on their own, even more as Golbez stepped away from the crystal a little. Kain caught himself staring at the paladin, averting his eyes then. What was going on that he was staring at Golbez like that?

_'Well, he does look a lot like Cecil... But... But it can't be!'_

"Is something the matter, Kain?" Golbez gave Kain a questioning look, somewhat expectant, too.

"No, everything's quite alright." Kain muttered. "It's nothing, really."

There was a slight shuddering shaking the airship, and suddenly, Kain found himself on to of Golbez. They blinked at each other, blushing, before Golbez cupped Kain's face and pulled him down to kiss him softly. The dragoon was too dumbfound to react, and by the time he had caught himself, he already found himself enjoying the soft contact.

As they parted the kiss for a moment, Kain felt strangely dizzy, taking a deep shuddering breath and trying to understand what just had happened. Golbez had sat up, just a bit away from him, equally confused about their sudden kiss. It had happened out of instinct, almost. They both had been deprived of any contact for a long time, and now wanted to savor it while it lasted.

"How long has it been since the vile grasped the world?" Kain asked quietly, leaning his forehead against Golbez's.

"Seven months." the paladin replied quietly. "Seven months of darkness and hopelessness have passed. But I found you, and now we may hope again."

Kain swallowed, having let go of his helmet and the lance. "I want to end it. I finally want to join my friends again. I want to hear them laugh, and I want to feel the sun beaming down on me."

"Then we will fight the vile together." Golbez smiled, brushing one hand against Kain's cheek.

"Don't be afraid, Kain. You will be united with them once more."

 _The Lunar Whale had long left the earth, and was approaching the frozen twin moons. Golbez and Kain were oblivious to this fact, though. Starved for company, they stilled each other's hunger, while the airship carried them through the eternal night..._   


	10. Together

The light of a myriad of stars flooded the airship with soft light, moving like thinnest veils. Kain had settled in the soft fabric of Golbez's cloak, inhaling the strange fragrance clinging to it. So foreign, yet so familiar. He couldn't name the reason, but somehow, this smell soothed him.

Golbez still was fast asleep, white hair splayed out around him like a halo. Kain smiled to himself, reaching out and brushing along the soft strands. He had lost count of how many times they had satisfied each other, of how many times they had been close to passing out from the ongoing exhaustion. But surely, it had been a most precious time.

Oddly enough, he felt like they were more than just two strangers fighting for the same cause. Maybe, it was because Golbez was so similar to Cecil, or for some other reason. Fact was that Kain felt safe with the other, more than any other time before. And that meant something.

_'What are you dreaming about, Golbez? Do you know how beautiful the world is, or have you seen a different world on the moons?'_

The dragoon scooted a little closer, leaning his head against Golbez's. He didn't wake the paladin, he just wanted to feel safe with the contact. A deep peace flooded him, making Kain smile. That was how it was supposed to be. Peaceful and, without a doubt, relieving.

Kain wrapped one arm around Golbez's form, pulling him close to his body. Their body heat kept the two men warm, and combined with the cloak, they didn't feel the cold of the eternal night around them. How close to or far from the moons they were? Kain couldn't have told with certainty. But it clearly was already too close for his taste.

A deep longing had awoken in the dragoon's heart. He wanted to stay close to Golbez and forget about the worries plaguing him ever since he had left the world behind. But he couldn't forget about everyone like that. He _had_ to safe them, or he might even lose Golbez to the vile. The thought of the paladin being consumed by the never ending darkness frightened Kain, and he hugged Golbez closer to him than necessary.

"Kain? You're squeezing me..."

"Terribly sorry. I wasn't watching out."

The dragoon loosened his grip again, making Golbez chuckle. The paladin blinked up at him, still sleepy and looking a little mussed. Leaning up, Golbez pressed a light kiss on Kain's lips, the soft contact making Kain's body tingle with excitement.

"You're worrying about something, right?"

"When couldn't I worry about what still will happen?"

"It's okay, Kain. You don't need to pretend you're stronger than you really are around me."

Kain wanted to protest, but the words caught in his throat. He exhaled deeply, settling against Golbez again. The paladin chuckled softy, whispering softly to the dragoon. _I love you, Kain._ Sweeter than anything ever before. Those words had gained a whole new meaning over the last few hours.

"I love you too, Golbez."

"That's why I want you to stop worrying. We will do what has to be done. And then we will stay together."

Kain slowly moved over Golbez, resting his head in the crook of the paladin's neck. Golbez's arms settled around Kain's waist, along with the cloak keeping them warm. They shared their fate, without regrets or anything holding them back. They had to safe what they valued and treasured. They had to... They had to be sure that everyone would be _alright_ .

Golbez then brushed through Kain's hair, nudging the dragoon softly. Sluggishly, Kain lifted his head, raising an eyebrow in a clearly questioning manner. Golbez merely smiled softly, keeping up the soft petting motions. After a while, Kain felt how the paladin drifted asleep, watching how Golbez's expression relaxed. Sweet... All tender and relaxed.

The dragoon separated himself from the other after a felt eternity, making sure that Golbez was tucked in properly. He slowly pulled on his leather pants and his tunic, gathering his armor. They had to be ready to leave the ship the instant they would approach the moons, to immediately set off to their journey.

_'I'm nervous and afraid. I don't know what will await us. And I don't know if we will survive.'_

A strange heavy feeling spread in his body, almost covering all of the good feeling having been there before. He shuddered briefly, frowning at the world on the outside of the Lunar Whale. The moons were close, close enough for him to see the impact of countless meteor fragments having hit the pale gray companion of the earth.

What was it that drew him close to Golbez over and over again? Was it the fact the other accepted him, with all of his little faults, or was it not more than this similarity to Cecil? Kain rubbed his forehead, confused about himself. He couldn't tell any longer what it was that he was feeling there. It _definitely_ was affection, but was it the right kind?

Kain was this wrapped up in thoughts he didn't notice how Golbez came closer and wrapped his arms around the dragoon's waist. Smiling, Kain leaned against the other, enjoying the softly scratching fingernails. Golbez wanted to distract him, and it worked out pretty well, he had to admit.

"You need to stop frowning, Kain. It doesn't look too good on you."

"I wasn't frowning."

"Then what about that gloomy expression on your face?"

Kain smiled softly, leaning back to kiss Golbez's temple. He remained leaned back like that, relaxing against the other's body. Oddly soothing indeed, he had to admit. Nothing bad, rather unusual for him still. Even if they knew each other for just some time, it felt like an eternity on its own.

"What were you thinking about?"

Kain glanced up at Golbez, who looked honestly worried. "About what waits ahead. I'm scared, Golbez. I don't know _why_ , I'm just scared."

"I'm scared, too." Golbez's arms wandered higher, settling around Kain's chest. "I'm just as scared, if not more. I could lose you, and everyone I know."

"So you don't want to ever leave me, huh?"

For a short time, they just looked at each other, pain and longing in their eyes at the same time, conflicting with their fear and their anger. They didn't know if they were doing the right thing, or if there even was a right thing to do in the first place. All they had was this faint shimmer of hope that everything would return to normal.

_'We want to go back to the world as it is supposed to be. Both of us. But we come from different worlds...'_

Kain's hands closed around Golbez's, silence surrounding them. The dragoon could feel the anxious heartbeat, could hear the pained gasps Golbez was taking. He turned around, returning the embrace fully and hiding his face in Golbez's neck, just as the other was hiding his in the dragoon's shoulder.

"Just look at us." Golbez chuckled, shuddering lightly. "Like children, who try to hide from the monsters."

"But those monsters are real. And they want to take away our lives, everything we treasure."

Golbez nodded faintly, his fingers digging into Kain's shoulders lightly. Only after a while, Kain realized that the paladin was crying into his shoulder. The wet heat on his skin drowned fear and anger alike, leaving behind nothing but deepest sympathy and understanding. Kain hugged Golbez tightly, starting to cradle the shaking paladin.

"It's okay, Golbez." he whispered gently, one hand covering the paladin's nape. "I'm here with you. Everything's alright."

As long as they were together, everything would be alright. Kain kept cradling and soothing Golbez, while the moons drew closer and closer. And with it, the fateful moment was coming closer as well...  


	11. Vile Heart

The surface of the moon was a most strange place to Kain. While Golbez seemed to be relieved to still find it mostly untouched by the vile, Kain had trouble thinking of his surroundings as the home of anyone. He could see Golbez living here, sure, but he couldn't imagine the _how_ .

But Kain didn't say anything about that matter, or let Golbez see how uncomfortable he was with the situation. At the same time, he felt the vile in his body growing once more. Kain had hoped that the seed and any remains had been cleansed from his body completely, but as it seemed, his hopes had been too utopic.

All the while he was trying to hide his worries from Golbez, he asked himself why he was behaving like that. Couldn't he just be honest and tell the paladin what was growing inside of his body, poisoning his mind and soul with the vile?

_'I'm too afraid I might lose him if I tell him. Why do I have to be so weak?'_

The dragoon was depressed about the thought he might had to part with Golbez soon. He had promised the paladin they would do this together, but he couldn't bring himself to endanger the one he had come to love so passionately. He wanted Golbez to be safe, untouched by the vile and by the darkness waiting for them in the heart of this strange darkness.

"Kain? You look so worried..."

Golbez knelt down next to the dragoon, who hadn't even noticed his legs had given out under him. He looked weakened and sick, especially as he trembled like that. The paladin helped Kain to his feet again, supporting him gently.

"It's good now, Kain. We will do this together."

"Yes... Yes, we need to..."

"Kain?"

_'I can feel it. But... How is that possible? The Jade Passage is said to be located near Mysidia, somewhere beneath Mount Ordeal, so why am I feel-'_

Golbez gasped incredulously as the ground began shaking, and from beneath the gray and dusty soil, Mount Ordeal began to rise into the eternal night. Kain blinked, shaking his head as if to chase off this strange feeling. Pain pulsed through his body, along with a voice beyond his understanding.

_'See, Kain? We have your friends. We will soon have your lover, and then it's only you, left to die a most painful death. Give in already.'_

Kain gritted his teeth, shaking his head once more and leaning on Golbez for support. The paladin was deeply worried, but he couldn't do anything against Kain's state. Still, he tried to take away some of the pain with weak _Cure_ and _Esuna_ spells. It helped only a little, but it helped.

"Don't give in, Kain. We will do this together, right?"

"Yes, we will."

What was supposed to sound firm and reassuring was nothing more than a weak whisper. Agony shook Kain's body as the painful grip of the vile around his soul tightened, more and more the closer they came to Mount Ordeal. Kain wanted to say something, anything, to make Golbez stop for a moment, but he couldn't get himself to talk. The dragoon remained silent, while the voice in the back of his mind laughed at him with that horribly shrieking tone.

"Watch out, Kain!"

The dragoon already had tripped, stumbling to the ground with a heavy clanging noise of his armor. Golbez was by his side in a flash, looking shocked and pale. The paladin rested one hand above the other's heart, trembling slightly as he felt the cold coming from Kain's body.

"K-Kain...?"

"It's the vile. It poisoned me, Golbez. I had hoped that I had overcome it, but it seems like I've been too naive."

"You... You idiot... You could have told me..."

Golbez didn't pull away from Kain, though, but hugged him close to his body. He felt like something was choking him, from the inside of his soul.

"I can't do this without you, Kain. I... I need to know there's someone waiting for me...!"

"Silly, there are already so many waiting for you to come back."

"Will you be one of them, Kain?"

The dragoon nodded, a weak smile showing on his half covered face. "I promise. I will be there, waiting for you. Now go, Golbez. Seems like it's your chance to be a hero."

At that moment, though, Golbez didn't want to be a hero. He wanted to stay with Kain, to be sure that the dragoon was alright. But if he didn't go to fight the vile, then the dragoon would, indeed, die a slow and incredibly painful death.

"Just promise to hold out long enough."

"Hey, you should know me better now. I have proven often enough that I got the necessary stamina to keep up with you."

Chuckling and shaking his head at how flirty the dragoon still could be, Golbez took off Kain's helmet, setting it down next to the dragoon. There were no monsters around, and he trusted that Kain would be somehow safe here. Just for the time he needed to find and defeat the vile having done this to his lover.

Still, it was hard to leave Kain behind, making him feel guilty and choked at the same time. Golbez nervously fidgeted with his sword as he turned towards the darkness waiting up ahead. Somewhere in there, the heart of what had caused all this suffering lay.

_'I wonder... what it is like. What is the reason for this vile to exist, and act like it does.'_

Golbez glanced back at Kain who had apparently fallen asleep. For a short moment, he was worried it wasn't just sleep, but then, the paladin forced himself to go on. The longer he hesitated, the more pain it meant for Kain. And he couldn't let that happen.

A strange, stinging smell rose into his nose as he approached the gate, which shimmered in a strange turquoise color. The Jade Passage was up ahead, and he could hear the faint calls and shrieks of monsters lurking there.

Golbez drew his blade, taking a deep breath. He not only would lose Kain to the vile if he didn't do it now. He would lose everything he had. Every last person meaning something to him, everything having made his life a life at all.

_'I swear that I will defeat the vile at any cost. I can't let this happen to the world. I can't let it die...'_

And with a last look back at Kain, Golbez stepped into the never ending darkness of the Jade Passage. Somewhere down there, in a place without name, forsaken by any gods or whatever were watching over them, the heart of the vile would await him.


	12. The Jade Passage

Everything was strangely silent while Golbez followed the gloomily illuminated path stretching in front of him. The Jade Passage was pulsing with the power of darkness having gathered, and it reeked with a most nasty stench. Was this the essence of the vile? It was almost too easy, too straightforward. It could have been a trap, but Golbez didn't want to believe that for the moment.

He shuddered as he drew his blade, ready to fight any monster jumping into his way, but not a single of those beasts showed itself. It made the paladin even more nervous than the thought that somewhere deep down there, the core of this whole mysterious vile was concealed.

_'I need to stay calm. I can't lose my head when I'm this close to the end already!'_

Plus, the worries about Kain kept him going. He had left the dragoon behind, without knowing if the other would be alright. It made his stomach cramp and clench up in a most uncomfortable way, whenever the thought circled back on him and entered his mind.

Kain had been trembling when he had left the other behind. It surely must have been all the pain the dragoon had been in that had made him quiver like that. Golbez swallowed thickly, shaking his head briefly. He better not thought about what would happen if he didn't end this in time...

_'What are you hoping for, paladin? Are you hoping for a happy world? Give up on this thought, you will be left behind like the many times before, and end in misery.'_

The vile's strangely gleeful, bodiless voice made Golbez think he would soon purge from the sickening tone in it. He wouldn't give in to the vile, not like this. He would fight for the future, for the time to continue. For his family and for his lover, who patiently waited for him to return. It didn't matter what he had to do for that to happen, he just wanted to be sure that Kain would be alright.

_'Aww, what a sob story. You are this worried about your precious dragoon? My, what a sweet thing to happen, to you of all people. But we know that you shouldn't have this luck. We know how your destiny should have looked like.'_

“Stop it. I don't want to hear any of this. I will defeat you, and I will make sure that Kain and everyone is safe!”

_'Playing the brave one now? Being brave so often is confused with being too stubborn to accept your fate. You, paladin, should be part of us. You should carry us. You were supposed to be our most faithful knight, and yet, you would betray us...'_

“I will never give in to you!”

Golbez almost flinched at how loudly he had screamed out. He shook his head firmly, his hands trembling as he listened to the unbearably shrill and gleeful laughter of the vile, which seemed to have become more human than he would ever have assumed. And it sent shudders down his spine to think what could come still, would the vile continue.

_'You're entertaining us, really. We never had such fun when playing with someone's heart. It will be such a pleasure to rip yours out, paladin. And then, your precious dragoon will follow us readily.'_

Golbez bit his lower lip, shaking his head stubbornly. He shouldn't listen to anything this voice said. He had to ignore everything, every last taunt, even if it was unbelievably hard to not listen to it. Sword lifted and ready to strike, Golbez stepped down a slippery, stair-like corridor, which didn't appear to have any definite end. The base of the stairs was lost somewhere in the darkness below...

But he wasn't afraid any longer. Anger had replaced the initial fear, burning it away and leaving nothing behind but the swear that he would defeat the vile, for all he cared for. Especially for Kain, who held out somewhere back there, leaning against the stone walls of the cave in Mount Ordeal.

The paladin rose his head slightly as he heard the monsters' screeches ringing in his ears. He grimaced lightly at how powerful it sounded, but didn't hesitate to step even further into the shadows closing in around him. He had to go down there, even if everything inside of him screamed to turn and run from this threatening cold rising from down there.

The vile's voice had fallen silent again. It was like a tense silence, a new assessing of the situation. Could the vile think and plan ahead like a human did? Could it use the same strategic cold as a general would in war? It had to be, otherwise, Golbez couldn't explain how it had captured so many minds and souls.

Then, all of a sudden, the sounds of all those monsters muted, and only then, Golbez stopped. He listened into the darkness, but heard nothing any longer. Faint wonder flickered through his mind, but never made it further into his conscience. No, he had to go on. Nothing would stop him. Absolutely nothing.


	13. Inner Fight

The air was tense enough to be cut with a sword by the time Golbez had made it to the last part of the Jade Passage. The strange glow had gone, having been replaced by darkness, and darkness alone. Golbez had relied on his sword only as he had made his way through the darkness, following the path visible in the little light his blade radiated.

All the while, he worried about Kain, anxiety seeming to gnaw on his mind. Golbez tried to keep himself from panicking, but that was far from easy. He wanted to go back and see for himself if the dragoon was alright, at the same time knowing that it would merely cost him precious time, and would cause Kain more pain.

_'How sweet of you, to still be so concerned. Who knows, maybe Kain is already dead? He isn't as strong as you. He is so much weaker.'_

Golbez shook his head, his anger flaring back up. How dared the vile to call Kain weak?! The dragoon had trained hard to overcome his weakness and the vile in his body, even if now, the training seemed to have been for naught. But Golbez refused to believe that. It had helped Kain to gain more control over his life, of that the paladin was convinced.

_'You indeed are much more stubborn than we would have thought. But that will do you no good. You will crush beneath your damned haughty behavior.'_

"I'm not haughty." Golbez calmly gave back, listening for any other sound that the vile's voice. "I'm merely trusting Kain. He's stronger than you think."

_'Stronger than we think? We don't think so. He's weak. A bug yet to be crushed. Nothing more.'_

"Enough of this. I came here to fight you back, and I will do this. For Kain."

_'How do you want to fight us, foolish human? There's nothing you can do to stop us.'_

"That's what you think. But I know I can win. I _have_ to win."

_'Even if Kain is on our side now?'_

Everything inside Golbez froze as he saw the staggering dragoon coming from the darkness. Strange black smoke seemed to rise from his body, and his breath was wheezing from pain. There was no doubt, it was Kain. Golbez made a step back, lifting his blade slightly. He wanted it to be an illusion. He prayed it just was... But no. Kain had been forced to come here. And he was in greater pain than any time before.

Golbez felt how his anger was more and more covered by a feeling he had fought back all this time. Fear was welling back up into him, blocking his throat and making his heart hammer in his chest. But then, he remembered his father's words about the true nature of a paladin.

_A true paladin never draws his blade._

It wasn't forbidden to fight as a paladin. It was directed at any hatred or negative feelings. While protecting others, paladins got to see the downside of the world. Mistrust, hatred, violence... All of those originated in the vile, and ultimately creating the vile.

Golbez more likely felt than heard the approach from behind, and evaded the stabbing blade by sheer luck. He shuddered as he saw the dark plated male, who like Kain was coughing and wheezing in pain. He felt a certain connection to this man, lowering his blade as he watched both Kain and the stranger struggle against the vile's grip.

While a part of the vile was hissing and trying to keep its precious marionettes under control, an other part was audibly annoyed as it once more addressed to Golbez. But Golbez wasn't listening any longer.

"Kain, you can do it." He laid his hands on Kain's shoulders, making the shuddering dragoon look up at him hesitantly. "I believe in you, Kain. You can fight back the vile."

Golbez had sheathed the sword, and now turned towards the stranger, who actually didn't feel like a stranger at all. Rather like an almost forgotten part of himself. Without really thinking about it, Golbez stepped close to the dark plated man, removing the helmet from the other's head. Beneath it, a younger version of himself appeared, making the paladin freeze momentarily. But, no. Not now. No more hesitating.

"Fight it." Golbez whispered, gently brushing one hand against the other's sweaty forehead. "You can still escape the grip the vile has on you. I believe in you."

The soft light radiating from Golbez still seemed to be enough to give the stranger some hope, and he nodded hesitantly. Kain, meanwhile, had come closer to Golbez, seeming to have to fight the vile's grip on him to a point he could barely move any longer. How he had come here was beyond Golbez's understanding.

And then, the vile began to screech in a this high tone Golbez believed his ears would start to bleed. Both Kain and the stranger shook their heads, coughing and seeming to have to spit out some bitter taste first. Maybe the vile had a most foul note, Golbez remarked to himself with a chuckle.

_'We will kill you all!'_

"No, this won't happen." Golbez drew his blade, pointing it up into the air. "We will make sure that you are going back to the place you belong to. You have no place in our worlds. And we will fight you off no matter what, until the end of days."

Feeling Kain and the dark knight on his side had something incredibly reassuring, especially as Kain shortly came up to hug Golbez around the waist. "I knew you would do it."

The dragoon's voice was soft and full of admiration, making Golbez's heart pound faster out of a whole different reason. He smiled back at Kain, nudging him softly then. They still had a fight to end. And before they had ended it, there would be no excuse to rest or lose their focus on what laid ahead.

Kain then blinked in surprise as the two dragons once more appeared, the white one above Golbez, the black above the dark knight. They nodded at him, with what seemed to be a smile. It was hard to tell with all those teeth, but he was pretty sure it was one.

"See? We are part of you." The white dragon's voice was that of Golbez, as Kain suddenly realized.

"Two lives. One in the shadow of a friend, and the second in the light of a lover." the black one added, musing in Cecil's soft tone.

"But that doesn't mean they ever will be kept apart." Kain muttered, smiling and bowing his head slightly. Now he felt it. He could do it. He could defeat the vile.

With Golbez and Cecil at his sides, who was supposed to stop him any longer? Kain could have started to laugh in relief, but not yet. The final battle wasn't over yet. Even though, he thought to himself, it rather was one of many battles. There would be more in the future, and every single of them would be hard, however 'easy' they appeared to be at first.

What exactly they were fighting, none of them knew. It seemed to be a mental thing more likely. Bit by bit, the darkness retreated, while the bodiless voice was screeching and cursing them without pause. They grimaced at how high and shrill it was, seeming to aim and make their ears bleed. But that couldn't stop them either. They would go on, until the vile was weak and caught in the Jade Passage once more.

_And while they freed the minds of their friends, time slowly returned to the worlds. The frozen state broke like glass, the monsters vanished from the earth. Everything was returning to the Jade Passage, to be sealed once more._


	14. Aftermath

It seemed to take a little eternity for them to leave the passage. The three men were exhausted, both mentally and physically, but they were happy. Happy that it had finally come to an end. Happy about their success in fighting back the vile, and especially happy time was back and flowing again.

Casting a look to the gaping hole, Kain frowned for a short time. Then, giving both Golbez and Cecil a questioning glance, he lifted his spear slightly. They seemed to understand immediately, and soon enough, they were standing around the gaping passage.

"How long will this hold?" Kain wondered as he set the tip of his spear on the ground.

"Longer than we might think." Golbez stated, casting a glance at Cecil.

"Long enough for the world to heal." Cecil finished, setting his blade down like the other two had. "And for this time to become a faint nightmare."

They didn't need words or any of that for the seal to form. It was their will and their good wishes, their spirit and mind. Kain was smiling as he sat down by the now sealed passage, exhaling lowly. He was tired without end... And before he knew what was even happening, he had fallen fast asleep.

_Around them, the world finally began to recover from the impact of the vile. The struggle against the worst side of the darkness they all knew had come to an end. Baron was greeting its heroes with open arms, while doves flew up into the skies._

Much time had passed. Kain didn't care for how much exactly, or what he had spent it with. All he cared about was that he was with Golbez, who didn't want to return to the moons any longer. The paladin only wanted his family to be safe, and nothing more.

Night fell over the castle, and with it a most serene silence. Ever since the end of the vile, peace had made the world fall into a soft slumber. Everything was like a strange dream, one of the most beautiful dreams indeed. Kain chuckled to himself as he nuzzled into Golbez's neck, which caused the paladin to protest lowly.

"I'm sorry. You are just too tempting, Golbez."

"Really?" the paladin muttered, rubbing his eyes and leaning on his forearms. "Am I looking like I'm in need of hugging someone?"

Kain snickered, nodding and hugging the other close to his chest. In the castle, no one seemed to think of them being this close to each other as strange in any way. Not that they would have cared either way. They were just happy to be with each other, and that was everything that mattered.

Golbez scooted close to the dragoon, nipping on Kain's ear. "You're incorrigible, you know that?"

"You mentioned it before, yes."

"And you're still all the same. Good boy."

"Don't call me a good boy. You know I don't like it."

Golbez grinned broadly, but didn't say anything else. Instead, he just hugged Kain back, inhaling the other's scent. Aside from much sweat, there was something spicy about the other, as well as a note of fire. A dragoon and dragon at the same time, tempting and dangerous. Or rather tempting _because_ he was dangerous.

"Are you trying to inhale me?" Kain asked with a low laugh.

"Maybe."

"Hey, stop it. We can't keep the others awake all night long, you know."

"But it's fun to keep them awake."

"Not if they chase us all across the training grounds the next morning."

Muttering something like weak protest, Golbez settled down, resting his head against Kain's chest. The other's heartbeat was calming like nothing else, a deep resonating sound making him forget about any exhausting events. He felt treasured and protected, in moments he had nothing to protect. Kain was the source of his strength, for his will and spirit. And he wouldn't let the other go ever again.

Kain glanced up, smiling and nudging Golbez lightly. "Hey, look at that. The moons are full tonight."

Golbez blinked sluggishly, having been about to doze off. He smiled as he saw the twin moons in the night sky, illuminating it with their gentle light. The paladin turned his head towards Kain then, nudging him softly.

"Sleeping time for little dragons."

"I'm not little. Nothing about me is little, small or _cute_ ."

"Oh, I don't know. When you're sleeping all curled up next to me, I think of that as pretty cute."

"Golbez..."

"Yes, Kain? Something the matter?"

They both were grinning as they mock glared at each other. No sleep for the others tonight.  


End file.
